Everyone in class was really tired or hungover or both. Personally, I slept four hours the night before after spending the last night crying into my drinks at Southport with Kara (Ryan), her sister Katie, and a bunch of guys.

Kelly and me: Just Graduated!

I had to pose with the statue of St. Ignatius.

The procession onto the lawn was very long, and an announcer kept saying details about the school as we filed in. I hate to say it, but I didn’t really listen to the speeches — although I did pay attention when Beth was talking about deciding to go to Florence against her parents’ wishes. (I was actually in Florence the same semester as her.) I was sitting next to Nick McCarthy and we had fun going through the program and pointing out people’s weird middle names. Heh.

Dean Snyder really enunciated my name, as well as all the other Mc’s.

As for Sean, he shook Father von Arx’s hand and said, “Good game,” then gave him a little pat on the butt! LOLOL. He’d been planning that for a long time — and Father von Arx LOVED it.

And we sang in glee club for the final time EVER. I tried not to think about it — at first I was just concentrating on getting up and down at the right times without incident. But then we sang the Prayer of St. Ignatius, and I was near tears, and then we sang the alma mater for the millionth time, but my lip was shaking violently by the end of it from holding back from crying. A few tears got out.

And now I’m a college grad. It’s kind of thrilling. Exciting. And now I’m actually looking forward to getting a job! How about that?